checking out the new portion of the irt

When I come home from LCCC, I go the back way, thru Ironton, an then come down Mauch Chunk Road. Any reason to avoid 309 is a good one. One day I noticed IRT trail head signs at Levans Rd. I knew that the trail was being extended, but I didn't realize how far.

The IRT is in several parts. It looks like a 9. There is the loop which is about 5.5 miles, and then the spur, which was 2.5 miles. At one time it ended at the Troxell Steckle house. Last fall I noticed it went further but I was unable to check it out. And it, too, was all paved. Or so I thought.

Today I had a 3.5 hour training at LCCC. It was time to check it out. The training started at 9 so there was no time to walk in the morning. I wore my Birks for school but had sneakers, socks, extra water (Well, when I left for school it was ice. By the time I walked it was water.)  and a hat in the car. But I decided to leave the Birks on. I knew the path was paved and I thought I would be going a mile or so on macadam. Wrong.

the last time I tried to find the trail head from Mauch Chunk Rd., I got lost.  So last night I downloaded the directions to the Toxell Steckle house.

I pulled into the parking lot and went to explore the property. I forgot that there was an actual road going thru the middle. I was walking down the street, setting my mapmywalk.com app and I heard a car and moved over. The guy yelled out the window to watch the f--k I was going. I thought that was a pretty strong reaction. He was, after all, driving thru a park. Drive slow and watch for people. It's common sense. And then I remembered. That stupid Pokemon phone game. I bet he thought I was playing that stupid game. It's apparently an obsession everywhere.

I generally don't use the mapping app. It sucks data up and battery life. I only have 1 gig so I need to be frugal. For a while I had even removed it from my phone. But then I got lost in the woods in Kentucky, so I re-downloaded it. I chose to use it today because I wanted to see how long the addition was. I thought it was a mile, to a mile and a half. That';s how far it is from Mauch Chunk Road to Reliant Street in Egypt. Clearly, that was incorrect. I went 5.22 round trip. So that makes the IRT about 10 miles now.

This trail even smelled new. There was a creek on one side. Railroad ruins on the other side. But what I noticed the most was the sound of gun fire. That didn't make me feel great. Clearly there was a Rod and Gun club somewhere close.

 This was the only wildlife I got a pix of—Mr. Snake. I also saw a yearling doe, and a frog. They wouldn't sit still for a picture.

As suspected a rod and gun club. But it was on the other side of the street, and the noise was getting closer and louder, in front of me. Not next to me.

And then concrete walls appeared. They got taller and taller. And the road changed to gravel. No more macadam. This is the area that had little water in the creek and it smelled like dead fish. Gross on any day. Worse when it's in the high 80s.

I had clearly arrived at the rod and gun club. The noise was very loud. And the tallest walls were really tall. Now these walls, for the most part were not new. They had been there awhile. A road is less than 50 feet away. This one looked like it used to be something else.

When the walls stopped and dense forest began, and so did these signs. Would people really go in the woods with gunfire? Maybe to get to the quarry? You really couldn't see the quarry with the walls.

This is the trail head at Mauch Chunk Rd.  The one that started the adventure. The trail continues another half mile to the North Whitehall Recreation Area. I only went to the edge of the park and turned around. It probably continued another 1/4 mile. There was probably bathrooms at the park too. Frankly, I was tired of dealing with the stones in my shoes.

There are no bathrooms at the Troxel-Steckler House park trailhead. I found that out the hard way last fall. Behind the fence in the above picture, is a port-o-potty, hidden from the road. About 2 miles in.  This is also about where the trail changed to gravel. Thankfully the IRT hosts many Girl and Boy Scout projects, and this potty screen is one of them. No peeing on the road. Thanks Colin from Troop 8! The little yellow rail car is a common site on the IRT.

I was out nearly 2 hours, on a hot day. But the trail is fairly shady. so it wasn't horrible

Nice walk. Next time I want to do it with someone. Walking alone for nearly 2 hours is not my idea of fun.